I hear next week Mom's learning how to text message

Interesting fact about my awesome parents #4381: Today, they bought a Wii. For themselves.

comment (1)

A Christmas Miracle!

You know how in A Christmas Story, when The Old Man pointed to the solitary gift in the corner behind the desk, Ralphie’s eyes lit up like two beacons of childhood splendor?

And you know how the movie ended, with Ralphie clinging on to Old Blue while he drifted into the best sleep he ever had?

Do you remember that?

I had eerily similar emotions this past Christmas, when I welcomed into the family a shiny new 80 gigabyte Playstation 3.

God bless us, everyone!

comment (1)

Casey and the Tetricolor Dreamcoat

I hate Tetris. Okay, I lied. I love Tetris. But I hate what it does to me.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been setting into stone a nighttime routine that has needed stone setting for a long time. Now, before I go to bed, I turn on ESPN so I can watch Sportscenter, lift weights for a few minutes, and then settle into bed, where I treat myself to a well-deserved game of Tetris on my handy dandy Game Boy Color.

I started this a while ago. Now, my high score has eclipsed 300,000 points and my cunning ability to stack randomized collections of four blocks is uncanny.

But there is an obscenely bad side effect that arises when one plays lots (and lots) of Tetris: I can’t get the blocks out of my head. The cube, the two different pieces that look like the letters S and Z, the two pieces that look like an Arabic numeral seven and the Greek letter gamma, and the all-holy four-brick column. I will make hypothetical situations in my mind, causing me to mentally place piece upon piece until my psyche is completely filled and the screen goes gray.

I’m sure I am not the only one who has this problem. Day and night, awake and asleep. I wish I could fix it.

But alas, that frigging high score is just sitting there, taunting me.

comment (1)

Best thing since sliced bread

For Christmas, Ian got me a network adapter for my Playstation 2. I haven’t been able to use it until now, though, because I needed a wireless LAN adapter so that I wouldn’t have to run the world’s longest CAT5 cable through my house. Now I’ve got the wireless bridge, so all is well.

Ideally, Ian would get a Playstation 2 and a copy of Madden ’06 so that I could beat him from home while he’s living in Gainesville. However, he hasn’t purchased a console yet, so I’m stuck playing games of Madden with a bunch of Redskins fans who feel that they have something to prove (i.e. they can win with more than 120 total yards of offense and aren’t handed the game by the refs).

But let me tell you right now: this is awesome. I can connect with anyone around the world and play football with them. It will come in quite handy during the offseason when all I have to enjoy is baseball and hockey, which are the lesser of American sports because white people are generally physically inept. I guess I’ve still got basketball, but I refuse to watch a sport wherein everyone participating has a rap album. Anyway, I digress.

That said, if anyone has a Playstation 2, a network adapter, Madden ’06, and the desire to be completely annihilated, go ahead and contact me so that we can duke it out on the field.

I love technology.

Comments Off

Ms. Pac Man

Some people might tell you it’s all about timing.

Sure, knowing when to steer right and left is important, but the key is to know your opponents, not to just steer clear of them at all costs. You cannot dominate your enemies until you first associate with them.

Blinky, known earlier as “Shadow” will just follow you. He gains speed as dots are collected and, when provoked, can be merciless.
Inky tries to do the same as his Red counterpart, but to no avail. However, one shouldn’t underestimate his speed and agility.
Pinky, while he is a threat, travels the farthest route to you as possible. Not too frightening, but for a lone yellow sphere in a world of ghosts, he can be right freaky.
Sue is the woman of the bunch. She may be a token character, but the orange beast stands guard to the area while her brothers do the dirty work.

But knowing how the little fellows operate isn’t enough; one has to actually spend time with them to see what they like. What route to take. How their eyes move before they turn. And, after a while, you begin to relate to them.

Me? I think I’m like Pinky. Why? Certs me.

comment (1)